Please recommend a new video card for me

Direwolf20

2[H]4U
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Mar 10, 2004
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So while playing some minecraft last night, my game froze up and my computer froze in an odd way. I rebooted to see some lovely red dots and lines all over the POST screen.

Crap.

So I try re-seating my video card, it works for about 20 minutes, and locks up again. Reboot again to more red dots and lines.

Double crap.

So I yank the thing out, and I'm heading to the store later today. I have an nForce 680i SLI motherboard, but I don't use SLI. Q6600 (quad core) cpu. Currently running 4gb of ram, but thinking of going up to 8.

My (now fried) video card is an nvidia 8800gt.

A friend recommends the 470gtx, thoughts?

Thanks in advance :)
 
1. GTX470, not 470GTX.
2. I'd advise against it, the GTX470 is outdated, very loud & noisy, and not very fast. If you can afford it, go with a GTX560Ti instead.
 
I'd normally say go with companies like Gigabyte and MSI. EVGA seem to have a fairly decent rep at the moment.
 
What resolution do you use for games?

Honestly if you don't do anything too demanding, a used GTX 285 would be just the ticket.

If you want new, the 560Ti is a fine choice, if you want more video RAM and your system can handle it the HD 6950 would be a good choice as well.:D
 
Indeed, this of course assumes you will get some use out of a performance upgrade. If you don't need any additional performance, you could go for a GTS450 or GTX550. I'd probably advise against buying 3 year old second-hand cards for reliability concerns.
 
Cool -- also, apparently there are different brands now? Does it matter which one I got with? EVGA vs Gigabyte, etc?

EDIT: Just looked at the local store near me, and those 2 video cards are almost the same price. :) $250

If you are in the US, evga without a second thought. Register it on line once you buy it, so you get the full warranty and step-up.:D
 
Indeed, this of course assumes you will get some use out of a performance upgrade. If you don't need any additional performance, you could go for a GTS450 or GTX550. I'd probably advise against buying 3 year old second-hand cards for reliability concerns.


I have two GTX 285s that I use for folding, they run 24/7 at 100% output and have yet to fail.;)
 
Doesn't mean to say they won't, or that someone else's GTX285 wouldn't. The GTX200s are a lot better than the 8000s for reliability, but there's still inherent risk in using an old card. Besides, for the sort of power those things use, you could get away with something a lot smaller like a GTS450 without losing too much performance.
 
I usually run the 1680x??? resolution -- which is what I run my desktop at. I have 2x 23" monitors (widescreen), so 2x DVI outputs is a must :). The 8800 has been decent, but if I can get a slightly better card (that won't be absurdly overpowered for my CPU/RAM) then I won't mind a slight increase ;).

Honestly, hardware these days makes my head spin. So many different options, from different manufacturers, I can't keep any of it straight.

I do want to play some good games -- SW:TOR coming up, Starcraft 2, etc.
 
Maybe go with the 560Ti then if you can afford it, that's a solid upgrade, it offers about triple the performance of the 8800GT.
 
Yea 560 is where I'm leaning. The evga one I linked looks good? Price wise it's right where I wanted and I get a free copy of arkham not bad :). That's a manufacturer overclock right? Looks nice ;)
 
I was going to suggest an HD6870 but he's using a 680i board. Those things were pretty poor when it came to hardware compatibility and reliability so I thought I'd stick with a geforce to keep things simple.
 
For the sake of simplicity, I'd agree, the best choice for card in this case would be a GeForce branded card.

I'm not so sure the 680i wouldn't be just fine with an AMD card, that MB did have HDD issues but was/is otherwise a pretty good board.
I ran both the EVGA and an ASUS 680i and they were very good boards.....were very picky to overclock, but otherwise solid performers at stock.

I like the looks of that evga 560 Ti. Like I said, when you buy it, register it on the evga website to get the whole warranty, and maybe a Step-Up if something comes along. The free game is pretty sweet too.
 
Having seen the hell that some other people have been through with 680i boards, I'd rather not complicate matters!
 
Fix your card!
Sounds like cooling problem to me. Off the shelf GPU universal cooling kits are available, try Newegg, Amazon or even Ebay. Most kits cost $15 plus some paste another $8 bucks.

Not an Nvidia fan since there last few GPU cores have had heat problems, meaning they tend to overheat then cause the solder balls to disconnect from the printed circuit board. ATI has less of a problem with there cores. Since AMD bought ATI there HD6xxx cards are lack luster but they work well.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions! :)

I wound up going with This card -- The GTX 560 ti.

I also got talked into buying a better PSU -- a 750w. I currently have a 550w and the microcenter guy said I should upgrade to at least 650, and 750w for some leeway.

What do you all think? I baught the 750w, but if you think 550w is more than enough for this card, I might return the PSU. Please keep in mind the Q6600 (Not overclocked btw). I did upgrade to 8gb ram (4x 2gb - DDR2 6400).
 
They're pretty reasonable PSUs. A 550W would have been plenty for a 560Ti, but again, only if it was a decent brand.
 
I'd imagine a Q6600 at stock speed running games at 1680x1050 would give you a bit of a cpu bottleneck. You may want to shoot for a overclock of 3.4-3.6 although 3.6 may be a pain in the ass on that 680i motherboard as nforce chipsets were a bitch to overclock on, too many holes in the FSB. I remember how much fun I had with my old In32xmax - wifi and my Q6700.

If possible try running games at a higher res and see if you can overclock that thing at least a little.
 
Will need to wait to get home from work on the 550 brand. Will prob keep the 750 just to be safe.

Thanks ALL for the advice. Will post an update when I get home and installed.
 
Posting from my updated rig :). GTX560ti installed. 750w PSU installed. Upgraded from 4x1gb to 4x2gb ram.

Booted up the first time (YAY!).

Thanks again all for the advice and tips ;).

My video card is running (At idle) around 64-65 celsius. I'm using 2 monitors, and unplugged one for a few minutes, and it got down to 40 celsius before i got tired of waiting and plugged the 2nd back in. Learned something new today about dual monitors and video card temps :).
 
Posting from my updated rig :). GTX560ti installed. 750w PSU installed. Upgraded from 4x1gb to 4x2gb ram.

Booted up the first time (YAY!).

Thanks again all for the advice and tips ;).

My video card is running (At idle) around 64-65 celsius. I'm using 2 monitors, and unplugged one for a few minutes, and it got down to 40 celsius before i got tired of waiting and plugged the 2nd back in. Learned something new today about dual monitors and video card temps :).

I just installed my 560ti tonight, too. It's running fine on my older Antec 550W PSU. I experienced the exact same temps as you...around 60C until I turned off my second monitor and it dropped to around 40C at idle. When I had my second monitory running, I fired up the Hard Reset demo and my fan was pegged at 100% and my card hit 99C. Not sure if that's normal or not.

E
 
That sounds high to me. From what I read online it shouldn't get that hot.

I fired up a couple games, and the max i saw was 82ish, and then the fan started going and cooled it to upper 70s (77-79c).

That said, the games i fired up weren't that intense -- just cause 2, was gonna do starcraft 2 but I had a ton of patches I didn't feel like waiting for.

Edit: Downloading Hard Reset demo now, I'll see how mine handles it.
 
WoW didn't cause the card to heat up much. Hard Reset just crushed it. Interested to see how yours does.
 
For me, the main menu of Hard Reset was pretty heavy duty -- card got up to 81/82, and sometimes spiked to 83, but the fans kept it around there. Running around in-game, it hovered around 77-79, whenever it spiked above 80, the fans sped up and cooled it back to upper 70's.
 
For me, the main menu of Hard Reset was pretty heavy duty -- card got up to 81/82, and sometimes spiked to 83, but the fans kept it around there. Running around in-game, it hovered around 77-79, whenever it spiked above 80, the fans sped up and cooled it back to upper 70's.

Was that with both monitors turned on? Or just a single monitor?
 
I just installed my 560ti tonight, too. It's running fine on my older Antec 550W PSU. I experienced the exact same temps as you...around 60C until I turned off my second monitor and it dropped to around 40C at idle. When I had my second monitory running, I fired up the Hard Reset demo and my fan was pegged at 100% and my card hit 99C. Not sure if that's normal or not.

E

how old is ur antec? what model is it? my old desktop with a antec 550w exploded 2 month ago and it was running a c2d e6700 and a 7900gtx. it started making a high pitched whine and poof dead good thing it didnt take anything else with it.
 
Oh. I also have one of those little slot fans that sits next to your video card. I don't think it would make THAT much of a diff though.
 
I have an nForce 680i SLI motherboard, but I don't use SLI. Q6600 (quad core) cpu. Currently running 4gb of ram, but thinking of going up to 8.

My (now fried) video card is an nvidia 8800gt.

A friend recommends the 470gtx, thoughts?

Thanks in advance :)

Nvidia 560 TI would be perfect for you. I don't know if an updated powersupply might be needed. I assume the one you got should be fine. But if it starts locking up and freezing in game. Makesure you have enough power for the videocard.
 
I just installed my 560ti tonight, too. It's running fine on my older Antec 550W PSU. I experienced the exact same temps as you...around 60C until I turned off my second monitor and it dropped to around 40C at idle. When I had my second monitory running, I fired up the Hard Reset demo and my fan was pegged at 100% and my card hit 99C. Not sure if that's normal or not.

E

Its not normal. The card has a higher idle temperature, due to its using a higher power state (higher core and memory clocks) when 2 screens are attached (to avoid flickering and such). 60C is still high on that type of card at idle. But, as long as increased fan noise or similar doesn't happen or bother you, it doesn't matter. That card can run happily at 60C 24/7 and even higher without it shortening the lifespan of the card.

But, 99C in 3D is very high. I suspect that you have a poor airflow in your cabinet (and/or the thermal paste on the GPU is not applied properly). Try to run the game with the cabinet door open/taken off.
 
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60ish with 2 monitors isn't too bad from what I've read but I'm no expert obviously. But 99 is the cards limit according to the specs. Any higher risks damage IMHO, I'd get uncomfortable at anything over 90.
 
60ish with 2 monitors isn't too bad from what I've read but I'm no expert obviously. But 99 is the cards limit according to the specs. Any higher risks damage IMHO, I'd get uncomfortable at anything over 90.

Its not bad, but its a symptom of either poor airflow, badly applied TIM or very high ambient temperatures. The card itself can run 70C and even more 24/7 without having any practical meaning towards lifespan. :) Its the 99C that worried me too.

There is another thing though that I was thinking about:

On 285.27 drivers, I have a bug where if I change the power option for the card in Nvidia CPL from adaptive to prefer maximum power globally, it sometimes gets stuck in 3d clocks even on desktop. I have to change to adaptive again and restart for it to change back to normal.

The adaptive power state switching annoys me in some games (like Black Ops) and in Two Worlds 2, the game crashes with adaptive after short while, but not on "maximum power". If I change only on selected games, it hasn't stuck yet. I'm updating to the new BF3 drivers now though. :)

With full 3D clocks. the card gets hotter for me too in 2D.
 
Do you have 2 monitors? I read online about it not switching to low power mode if 2 monitors are plugged in.

I definitely noticed it go down to 40ish when I unplugged a monitor.
 
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